Amphibians are declining at a 12% annual rate, a study by a Corvallis-based researcher found.

"We've known about amphibian population declines for a long time, but the problem may be worse than we thought," [Michael] Adams says. "We need to be careful."

More surprising, Adams says, the habitats occupied by IUCN species of least concern, assumed to be fairly stable, declined at nearly 3 percent a year. At that rate, they'd disappear from half their territory in 26 years.